How do you decide the best course of action for your company to take advantage of new opportunities? You must develop a business case to explore multiple alternatives before making a recommendation to support a particular option. This book shows you how to use a business case to define an opportunity, identify and analyze alternatives, and present your final recommendation to key stakeholders. You'll learn to - Clearly define the opportunity you'll want to address in your business case - Iden...

In 1999, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore offered this idea to readers as a new way to think about connecting with customers and securing their loyalty. As a result, their book "The Experience Economy" is now a classic, embraced by readers and companies worldwide and read in more than a dozen languages. And though the world has changed in many ways since then, the way to a customer's heart has not.

In fact, the idea of staging experiences to leave a memorable and lucrative impression is now more...

A well-crafted business plan generates enthusiasm for your idea and boosts your odds of success--whether you're proposing a new initiative within your organization or starting an entirely new company. Creating Business Plans quickly walks you through the basics. You'll learn to: * Present your idea clearly * Develop sound financial plans * Project risks--and rewards * Anticipate and address your audience's concerns Don't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skil...

The path to your professional success starts with a critical look in the mirror. If you read nothing else on managing yourself, read these 10 articles (plus the bonus article "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton M. Christensen).

We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles to select the most important ones to help you maximize yourself. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself will inspire you to: Stay engaged throughout your 50+-year work life Tap into your deepe...

Learn to assess the situation, manage your emotions, and move on. While some of us enjoy a lively debate with colleagues and others prefer to suppress our feelings over disagreements, we all struggle with conflict at work. Every day we navigate an office full of competing interests, clashing personalities, limited time and resources, and fragile egos.

Sure, we share the same overarching goals as our colleagues, but we don't always agree on how to achieve them. We work differently. We rub each...

The ultimate guide to data visualization and information design for business. Making good charts is a must-have skill for managers today. The vast amount of data that drives business isn't useful if you can't communicate the valuable ideas contained in that data—the threats, the opportunities, the hidden trends, the future possibilities.

But many think that data visualization is too difficult—a specialist skill that's either the province of data scientists and complex software packages or...

The one primer you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Whether you're imagining your new business to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley, a pivotal B2B provider, or an anchor in your local community, the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook is your essential resource for getting your company off the ground. Starting an independent new business is rife with both opportunity and risk.

And as an entrepreneur, you're the one in charge: your actions can make or break your business. You need to...